Leon Draisaitl scored his second goal of the night with 31 seconds left in overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a 4-3 comeback victory over the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final at Rogers Place.
Tomas Nosek shot the puck into the crowd while in his own end with 1:43 left in the fourth period to put the Oilers on the power play which they converted when Connor McDavid took a little no-look backhand bump pass from Corey Perry down low and then centered out to Draisaitl, who beat Sergei Bobrovsky from the slot to end it.
A disturbing result for the Panthers who took their first loss in 31 playoff games under head coach Paul Maurice when they had a lead after the first or second period, blowing a 3-1 advantage in the process.
Draisaitl opened the scoring 1:06 into the game when he cashed in a loose puck in front after Bobrovsky failed to glove Jake Walman’s on-edge slapper from the left point. Bobrovsky denied Kasperi Kapanen on the rebound, but the puck found the deadly Draisaital and he buried it.
The Panthers evened it up at 10:49 when Carter Verhaeghe took a pass from Matthew Tkachuk and fired off a quick shot from the high slot that deflected in off of Sam Bennett after he was tripped by Brett Kulak while screening Stuart Skinner.
Edmonton challenged the goal and lost, giving the Panthers a man-advantage that they would use to forge ahead 1:41 later.
Evan Rodrigues intercepted a clearing attempt high in the offensive zone and dropped to Nate Schmidt at the left point. Schmidt spotted Brad Marchand open in the lower right circle and snapped him a crisp feed that the crafty veteran calmly cradled and wristed into the top of the net.
A pretty passing play involving Verhaeghe and Schmidt saw the veteran defenseman, who played a whale of a game, send Bennett in alone on Skinner two minutes into the second and Playoff Sam solved him emphatically with a backhand-to-forehand finish to put the Cats up by two.
Unfortunately, the Oilers got the goal back 1:17 later, countering after Rodrigues took a tumble deep in the Edmonton end and lost possession. Vasily Podkolzin accepted an outlet pass from Evnn Bouchard and then dropped to Viktor Arvidsson as the two crossed the blue line. Bobrovsky seemed to puck up Arvidsson’s subsequent slap shot late and the puck bounced in off his body to halve the deficit.
Florida dominated the rest of the period, but Skinner would come up large, finishing the frame with sixteen straight saves to keep the Oilers within a goal.
The third period was all Edmonton as they out-shot the Cats 14-2 and tied the tilt when McDavid’s backhand pass from along the goal line, meant for a driving Evander Kane, found Mattias Ekholm wide-open in the left circle and he easily pumped the puck past a screened Bobrovsky at the 6:33 mark. Kapanen drew the secondary assist on Ekholm’s first of the postseason.
The Cats made a push for the winner early in overtime, but couldn’t capitalize. The Oilers would tilt the ice and end up testing Bobrovsky nine times before Draisaitl bagged the game-winner.
If you weren’t rooting for the Panthers, you likely enjoyed this one. A tense overtime battle in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. A hockey fan couldn’t ask for much more. On the flip side, not finding a way to pull out what would’ve been a huge road win after building a 3-1 lead feels like a bitter disappointment in the afterglow. Following Arvidsson’s goal, the Cats had plenty of good chances in the second period to tack on another goal and break Edmonton’s spirit, but they couldn’t finish. And to get completely outplayed like they did in the third period was something we aren’t used to seeing very often. A much better effort will be needed on Friday to come out of Alberta with a split.
Stanley Stuff
- Limited in last year’s Final. a healthy Leon Draisaitl scored twice to earn First Star honors in Game 1. Draisaitl logged 28:13 of ice time and was credited with four shots and four hits.
- Sam Bennett matched Draisaitl with a brace and tied Mark Scheifele’s NHL record of 11 road goals in a single postseason. Bennett led the Panthers with five shots on goal.
- Stuart Skinner finished with 29 saves and won for the seventh time in nine games since he regained the starter’s role after Calvin Pickard was injured against Vegas. A much busier Sergei Bobrovsky, who was sensational in third, stopped 42 of 46 shots.
- Florida controlled 75% of 5-on-5 shot attempts when Nate Schmidt was on the ice. In addition to his two helpers, the veteran blueliner registered two shots and a hit.
- Thanks to his power-play goal, Brad Marchand (37) became the oldest player with at least 15 points in a single playoff year since Martin St. Louis (New York Rangers) in 2014.
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